According to an article in Mother Earth News, plants that experience drought early on are able to adapt to drier conditions. However; instead of simply acknowledging this discovery – that yes, plants know how to adapt to change – the article goes on to say that a group of scientists are receiving a 25 million dollar grant to genetically produce drought resistant plants! Okay, so we already know that plants can do this on their own. Why then, do we continue to think that we are smarter than they are? Scientists are getting paid big bucks to produce genetically modified seeds while our reliable heirloom seeds are disappearing. Their justification is to keep food production pace in stride with population growth; but shouldn’t we instead be considering ways to slow population growth and to reduce our wastefulness?
The truth is, we do not have a food shortage. We have a space problem. We simply do not have enough space on our small planet to support 8 billion people. We actually have plenty of food. Many of the “weeds” that are routinely doused with deadly chemicals, are actually edible. The problem is that far too much food is being thrown away in the name of profit. Our gluttony and over consumption, not only in food, but with all of the gifts Nature has provided us, is shameful.
I am sickened by the relentless whining of pro-lifers who refuse to remove the blinders that prevent them from seeing what they do not want to see. I am appalled by the scientists and doctors who feel the need to interfere with Nature by creating life in test tubes, only to satisfy their own desire for power and to satisfy parents who feel that they must have a child of their own genetics. There are thousands of children already in the world in need of food, in need of love.
We do not have a food shortage. We have a shortage of gardeners. We have a shortage of people who know how to be self-sufficient, to thrive and to live in balance with Nature at the same time.
